mpfc 3608 Thripshaw’s Disease

Series 3, Episode 36: Thripshaw’s Disease

The cast:THRIPSHAW John CleeseMAN Michael Palin

The sketch:(Cut to front of a booklet, entitled ‘A Dissertation on Thripshaw’s Disease Presented to the Royal College of Surgeons by Dr E. Henry Thnpshaw’. Captions zoom forward over it:)
HARLEY STREET
FLEET STREET
BROADWAY
HOLLYWOOD

(A page of the book turns to reveal the title ‘David O. Seltzer Presents’. The page turns again to reveal ‘Rip Glint in:’. The page turns again to reveal a title in stone lettering ~ la Ben-Hur, with searchlights behind it la 20th-Century Fox: ‘Dr E. Henry Thripshaw’s Disease’. Cut to stock film of maraudlng knights.)
SUPERIMPOSED CAPTION: ‘SYR1A 1203’

(The knights sack a village, looting, pillaging, burning and murdering. Cut to a studio set with interviewer and Thripshaw.)

Interviewer:(speaking with frequent pauses, as of one reading from a slow autocue) That clip… comes from the new David O. Seltzer… film. The author… of that film clip… is with me… now. Doctor E. Henry… Thripshaw.

Thripshaw: Well, I feel that they have missed the whole point of my disease.

Interviewer: This is… always the problem… with directors of film… clips.

Thripshaw: Yes, well you see, they’ve dragged in all this irrelevant mush…

Interviewer: What… are you doing… now?

Thripshaw: Well at the moment I am working on a new disease, which I hope to turn into a musical, but, primarily we are working on a re-make of my first disease and this time we’re hoping to do it properly.

Interviewer: Well… let’s just… take a… look at this new film… clip.

(Film clip exactly as before. Cut to Thripshaw at a desk evidently in a castle. A knight in armor rushes up to him.)